New provisions to promote quality products & services and to boost consumer
protection

YEAR END REVIEW- 2015

The Government achieved significant
mile stones in the reforms of PDS by making it more transparent and leak proof.
During 2015, digitisation of ration cards completed in 29 States while it was
just touching two- digits in the beginning of the year, 16 states even
stared online foodgrains allocations and online grievance redressal introduced
in 26 states. Direct cash transfer of food subsidy to the beneficiaries started
in Chandigarh and Puducherry in September this year.

Based on the recommendations of high level committee on restructuring of FCI,
procurement policy for paddy modified to ensure reach of MSP operations to more
farmers. Millers levy on rice was abolished. The Government also provided
relief to the farmers during the year by relaxing procurement norms for their
crops affected with the unprecedented rains and hailstorms.

Due to sustain efforts to facilitate payment of sugarcane arrears to the
farmers, arrears came down to Rs. 5406.24 as on November 15, 2015 from Rs. 66,003
crore in the sugar season of 2014-15.

Highlights of other initiatives are:

Improving foodgrain management

·High level Committee under the chairmanship of
Shanta Kumar, MP was constituted to make recommendations on re-structuring of
FCI. Based on the recommendations of High Level Committee on restructuring of
FCI, several measures have been initiated to improve the functioning of FCI and
to bring in cost efficiency in its operations.

·Sustained efforts have resulted in significant
reforms in TPDS. As a result by first week of December 2015,

-Digitisation of ration cards completed in 29 States/UTs, over
32 crore ration cards have been digitized and over 8.5 crore ration cards have
been seeded with Aadhaar,

- Transparency portal to display
all operations of TPDS launched in 27 States/UTs

·In the month of September, 2015, online formats for
obtaining the information related to various aspects of implementation of TPDS
in the States introduced. The information is now available
online. This has brought more transparency in implementation and facilitates
quick decision making

·In order to check of leakage and diversions and to
facilitate direct cash transfer of food subsidy to the beneficiaries,
Government has notified “Cash Transfer of Food Subsidy Rules, 2015” on
21.08.2015 under the NFSA. These rules provide that DBT scheme will be
implemented in a State/UT with the consent of the concerned State Government/UT
Administration. Under the scheme, in lieu of foodgrains subsidy component will
be credited to bank accounts of beneficiaries who will be free to buy
foodgrains from anywhere in the market. For taking up this model,
pre-requisites for the States/UTs would be to complete digitization of
beneficiary data and seed Aadhaar and bank account details of beneficiaries. The
scheme has been launched in Chandigarh and Puducherry in September, 2015.
Dadra and Nagar Haveli, is also in full readiness for implementation of this
pilot cash transfer/ DBT scheme.

·National Food Security Act in 24 States, at the end of one year after National Food
Security Act, 2013 (NFSA) came into force, i.e, upto July, 2014, implementation
of the Act had started in 11 States/UTs. Since then, 11 more States/UTs have
joined NFSA the total number of States/UTs now implementing the Act is 23.
Sikkim has also notified the implementation from Jan 2016, the number is going
to increase to 24.

·To ensure that beneficiaries of the National Food
Security Act get entitled foodgrains positively, rules for payment of
food security allowance to the beneficiary in the case of non-delivery
of foodgrains notified in January, 2015.

·The Central Government also decided to share 50%
(75% in the case of Hilly and difficult areas) of the cost of handling
& transportation of foodgrains incurred by the states and the dealers’
margin so that it is not passed on to the beneficiaries and they get coarse
grain Rs1/kg, wheat at Rs2/kg and rice at Rs 3/kg

·Department Food & PD’s ‘Group’ namely “Food
Security” was opened @ myGov portal i.e. www.myGov.in for engaging with citizens by inviting their
comments/suggestions on various issues from time to time. Under the said Group
‘Food Security’ a discussion thread namely ‘Improving the TPDS’ was opened for
a period of one month during February, 2015. Suggestions /comments received
from citizens have been shared with the States/UTs as well as within the
Department for action for an improved TPDS.

·To bring all operations of FCI Godowns online and
to check reported leakage, “Depot Online” system initiated and integrated
security system is being set up in all sensitive depots.

·The Government of India approved approximately 111
lakh MT of wheat and 20 lakh MT of Grade-A rice for sale in the year 2015-16
under Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS), out of which, 16.93 lakh
MT of wheat and 0.40 lakh MT of Grade-A rice was sold by the end of Oct, 2015.

·As a result of progressive procurement policy of
the Government, sufficient food grains are available in Central Pool Stocks of
FCI. Stocks as on 01.12.2015 are 504.99 lakh MT, comprising 268.79 lakh MT
wheat and 236.20 lakh MT rice.

·Besides 12 States/UTs already under Decentralised
Procurement, Telangana became a new DCP State this year for procurement of
rice. Andhra Pradesh & Punjab have also adopted this system partially
during 2014-15 to improve the efficiency of foodgrains procurement and
distribution operations.

·Adequate supply of foodgrains made using
multi-modal transport in North Eastern States despite disruption in rail route
due to gauge conversion from Lumding to Badarpur. 80,000MT foodgrains
moved through roads every month besides creating additional storage of
20,000 MT in the region. Foodgrains also inducted into Tripura via riverine
route passing through Bangladesh.

·1, 03,636 MTs of Rice moved from Andhra Pradesh to
Kerala for the first time through riverine/coastal movement.

·The Government revised the buffer norms in January,
2015 for better management of foodgrain stocks. During 2015-16 both storage
and transit losses have been reduced to (-) 0.03% due to storage gain
in wheat and 0.39% against MoU target of 0.15% and 0.42% respectively.

·100 MT of rice sent to Myanmar to help the flood
affected pocket near Manipur border.

·New godowns having capacity of 10 lakh MT under Private Entrepreneur Guarantee Scheme
(PEG) constructed in 20 States. Besides this storage capacity of 62,650
MT in North East under Plan Scheme and 1.78 lakh MT in
12 States added through CWC.

·The FCI has successfully completed the RFQ stage
for construction of 6 silos of a total 2.5 lakh MT capacity at
6 different locations in the country- Changsari, Narela, Sahnewal, Kotkapura,
Katihar and Whitefield on PPP model, for a modernized system of storage as also
for bulk movement of foodgrains through specialized wagons which will help in
maintaining the quality of foodgrains, minimize losses and ensure rapid
movement of foodgrains.

·590.41 lakh MT of foodgrains were allocated to
States/UTs for distribution under TPDS and
other Welfare Schemes during 2015-16 (upto 28.10.2015).

·The Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) also
achieved all time high turnover of Rs. 1562 crore in 2014-15 and added a record
dividend payment of 54% to the Govt.

·A transformation plan for the Warehousing
Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) has been initiated to streamline
the warehousing sector. The work on for creation of IT platform and rewriting
of rules and procedures has been initiated.

Relief to the farmers

·In order to give relief to the farmers affected by
the unprecedented rains & hailstorms this year, Government relaxed Quality
norms for the wheat procurement. The Central Government decided to
reimburse amount of value cut on such relaxation to the State Government so
that farmers con get full Minimum Support Price (MSP) even for shrivelled and
broken wheat grains or grains having lustre loss. Such a farmer’s centric step was taken first time by any
Central Government.

·To ensure payment of minimum support price to more
paddy farmers, millers levy on rice abolished from October, 2015. This will
save farmers from exploitation and now they will not depend on millers for
selling their paddy.

·This initiative has improved delivery of MSP to the
farmers for paddy even in the situation of market prices ruling below the MSP,
especially in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West
Bengal, where the farmers are substantially dependent on millers for selling
their paddy.

·During Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2013-14 only a
quantity of 8.52 lakh MT of paddy had been purchased directly from the farmers
by the State Agencies in unified Andhra Pradesh, but in KMS 2014-15, such
direct purchase of paddy has gone upto 36.76 lakh MT in Andhra Pradesh and
Telangana together. The reduction of levy in KMS 2014-15 has not resulted in
any substantial reduction of overall procurement of rice in these two States
till date compared to KMS 2013-14.

·Similarly in Uttar Pradesh, the procurement of
paddy has gone up from 9.07 lakh MT in previous season to 18.18 lakh MT in
current season and overall procurement of rice has gone up from 11.05 lakh MT
of previous season to 16.10 lakh MT till April, 2015.

·In West Bengal also, the procurement of paddy has
gone up from 5.79 lakh MT in previous season to 13.29 lakh MT in current season
and overall procurement of rice has gone up from 8.27 lakh MT to 13.31 lakh MT
till April, 2015

Outreach of MSP increased in eastern
states for paddy farmers:

·In a bid to increase reach of minimum support price
(MSP) operations to more farmers and increase procurement of paddy, a policy
for engagement of private players in procurement in Eastern States has been
formulated this year. Private firms have been allowed to procure paddy from
farmers in a cluster, indentified by the respective state government in the
states of Assam, Bihar, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal, where
the Food Corporation of India (FCI) does not have a robust procurement
mechanism which often forces farmers to go for distress sale. Private firms
would deliver custom milled rice (CMR) at the FCI or state government-owned
agency godowns.

·FCI started procurement pulses from farmers at
market price and also working on procurement plan for oilseeds to ensure MSP
for farmers.

·In order to have better targeting of “other welfare
schemes’ for poor, a committee of ministers set up under the chairmanship of
Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. The Committee not only decided
continuation of foodgrain allocation for other welfare schemes but also
nutritional support by providing milk and eggs etc under the schemes.

·The drop in international prices of imported oils
was affecting the prices of domestically produced edible oils consequent upon
which farmers’ interests were affected. Department of Food and Public
Distribution had recommended an increase in the import duty. Accordingly, the
import duty on Crude oils increased from existing 7.5% to 12.5% and the import
duty on refined oils from existing 15% to 20%. on 17.09.2015

Steps taken to liquidate cane price arrears of
farmers

·The Government has taken several measures to
facilitate payment of cane price arrears by infusing liquidity into the sector.

·To facilitate clearance of cane price arrears of
the farmers, a scheme for extending soft loans to the extent of Rs. 6000
crore to the sugar industry was notified on 23.6.2015. Rs 4047 crore have been
disbursed under the scheme. The government also extend period by one year for
achieving eligibility under the soft loan scheme and decided to bear the
interest subvention cost to the extent of Rs. 600 crore for the extended
period. This will extend benefits to larger number of farmers by enabling more
mills to avail the benefits of the scheme. It has also been decided that after
clearing cane dues of farmers, subsequent balance, if any, will be credited
into the mill accounts. This will benefit about 150 additional sugar mills
which had proactively liquidated more than 90 percent of their cane dues payable.
This would ensure that mills are incentivized for arranging bridge finances for
timely clearance of cane dues to farmers.

·Direct Subsidy to farmers, Government decided to
pay a production linked subsidy of Rs 4.50 per quintal in 2015-16 seasons, to
sugar mills to offset the cost of cane and facilitate timely payment of cane
price dues of farmers for sugar season 2015-16. A notification in this regard
issued on 2.12.2015. Funds released under the scheme shall be directly credited
into farmers’ accounts.

·The export incentive on raw sugar has been
increased from Rs 3200/MT to Rs. 4000/MT. Funds have been allocated to support
14 lac MT (LMT) of raw sugar exports as against 7.5 LMT achieved last
year. In September 2015 Government also announced quotas for mills and
co-operatives for mandatory exports of four million tonne of sugar in 2015-16.

·The Government has enhanced import duty on sugar
from 25% to 40% to discourage imports. Also, to prevent leakages of sugar in
the domestic markets, the export obligation period has been reduced from 18
months to 6 months under the Advanced Authorization Scheme.

·Blending targets under Ethanol Blending Programme
scaled up from 5% to 10%.

·Remunerative prices for Ethanol supplied for
blending have been increased to Rs. 49 per liter, a substantial increase over
previous years. As a result, the supplies of ethanol for blending have
increased from about 32 crore liters per year to 83 crore liters per annum.
Excise duties on ethanol supplied for blending in the next sugar season has
been waived, to further incentivize ethanol supplies for the blending program.
This would further increase the ex mill price of ethanol and help improving
liquidity in the industry facilitate payment of cane price arrears.

·In order to mobilized more funds for various
intervention to facilitates liquidation of cane arrear, such as interest
subvention based soft loans, export incentives and production assistance,
amendment in the Sugar Cess Act, 1982 introduce in the parliament.

·As a result of sustain efforts, the cane price
arrears which were Rs. 66,003 crore in sugar season of 2014-15 came
down to Rs. 5406.24 crore as on December 15,
2015.

New provisions to promote quality of consumer
products and services

·In order to ensure quality of products and services
for common consumer, the Government introduced Bureau of Indian
Standards Bill, 2015 in Parliament to replace 29 years- old BIS Act.
The new Bill has been approved by Lok Sabha. In the new Bill provisions have
been made for simpler self-certification mechanism, mandatory hallmarking, and
product recall and product liability for better compliance to standards.

·New provisions proposed will promote harmonious
development of standardisation activities, enabling GoI to bringmandatory
certifications regime for goods or service considered vital from viewpoint of
health, safety, environment,and prevention of deceptive practices.
Provision to prevent import of below par products, providing mandatory
hallmarking of precious metal articles, increased scope of conformity
assessment, and enhancement of penalties and implication of provisions in the
Act. The new Bill has also made increased penal provisions for better and more
effective compliance and compounding of offence for violations

·New Bill provides for recall, including
product liability of products not conforming to relevant Indian
Standards

·Consumer Protection Bill 2015 that seeks to
simplify and strengthen consumer grievance redressal procedure introduced in
the Parliament this tear. Setting up of a Central Protection Authority which
will have powers to recall products and initiate class suit against
defaulting companies, including e-retailers proposed. E-filing and
time bound admission of complaints in consumer courts is another important
provision made in the Bill.

·Joint campaign organised with Heath, Financial
Services and other departments for greater consumer awareness. During the
year the Department of Consumer Affairs intensified its multimedia campaign
under the banner of Jago Grahak Jago. With special emphasis on rural
areas, tribal areas and North East, the campaign makes consumers aware of their
rights/obligations. Joint campaigns were organized with the Reserve Bank
of India, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance to focus on specific
issues of consumer interests.

·To tackle the menace of misleading advertisement, a dedicated
portalwww.gama.gov launched. It enables consumers to register
their grievances against misleading advertisements in six key sectors viz. food
and agriculture, heath, education, real estate, transport and financial
services have included for this purpose. The complaints lodged are taken up
with the relevant authorities or the sector regulators and the consumer is
informed after the action taken.

·To provide a host of consumer services under one
roof, Grahak Suvidha Kendras launched in six locations:
Ahmadabad, Bangalore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Patna and Delhi on March 18, 2015. Such
centres will be set up in every State in phased manner. They will provide
guidance to consumers regarding consumer laws, the rights of the consumers, the
procedure of approaching Consumer Courts and various other consumer related
issues including quality assurance and safety of products.

The Government will launch a countrywide campaign along
with voluntary consumer organizations to create mass consumer awareness which
will also include capacity building training for safe and hygienic food.
Addressing the consumer day celebrations here today with the theme “Safe &
Healthy Food: Combating Food Adulteration, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs,
Food And Public Distribution, Shri Ram Vilas Paswan said that the initiative of
his ministry will be taken to rural pockets which need more awareness about
consumer rights. He expressed hope that the campaign will be successful in
building a culture of food safety in the country with nationwide sensitisation
sessions on cleaning, hygiene & sanitation for safe food.

Shri Paswan said that with opening up of the economy various consumer goods and
services have entered into the Indian market. To meet the changed situation, we
have introduced new Consumer Protection Bill and new Bureau of Indian Standards
(BIS) Bill to prevent unfair trade practices, to effectively deal with
adulteration of food, misleading advertisements and speed up the disposal,
which will have far reaching implications. Proposed amendments will also enable
swift executive intervention in the nature of class action both to prevent
consumer detriment and to provide redressal to a class of consumers. More
products concerning health, environment and safety will be brought under
compulsory certification besides compulsory Hallmarking of Gold and Silver
jewelry and recall of non-conforming Standard Marked goods from the market, the
Minister added.

Shri Paswan said that to supplement the Government efforts to create effective
consumer awareness, the industrial organization should come forward. He said
self regulatory code should be evolved and implemented in sector like street
food. Shri Paswan said his department is ready to be a partner in this venture.
He asked BIS and FSSAI to review together existing food and safety regulations
and to see how they can be made more effective in the interest of consumers.

Delivering the key note address on the occasion, Justice, D.K. Jain, President
of National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) expressed concern
over increasing reports of unfair trade practices and misleading
advertisements. He said strict regulations are required to check these. He also
suggested review of Packaged Commodity rules to safe guard the interests of
consumers.

On the occasion Shri Ashish Bahuguna, Chairman, Food Safety Standards Authority
of India delivered the theme address “Safe & Healthy Food: Combating Food
Adulteration”. He said that consumer awareness is key to ensure effective
implementation of Food and Safety standards, wherever necessary these standards
will be reviewed and made more stringent, he added.

The Department had organized a poster making competition among school children
on the theme consumer awareness. On the occasion cash prizes were given to the
prize winning six school children. In addition, some publications useful to the
consumers were released.

The National Consumer Rights Day is an annual occasion for celebration and
solidarity within the national consumer movement and is an opportunity to
promote the basic rights of all consumers.

****

Ethanol blending targets scaled up from 5% to 10%
to improve the liquidity position of sugar mills

Under Ethanol Blending Programme (EBP), the Central
Government has scaled up blending targets from 5% to 10% to promote blending of
ethanol with petrol and its use as alternative fuel. This information was given
by the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Ram
Vilas Paswan in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

The Minister said that presently, 156 units are producing molasses based
ethanol with annual installed capacity of approximately 224 crore litres. 21
distilleries with sugar factories produce only alcohol requiring up gradation
for ethanol production capacities. 12 more ethanol production facilities are
being set up in different states.

Soft loans up to 40% of the project cost is provided to the sugar mills from Sugar
Development Fund (SDF) for setting up ethanol projects.

He said that at present, ethanol produced from molasses is not cheaper than
motor spirit at refinery gate. However, to achieve the objectives of the
National Bio-Fuel Policy, with a view to encourage production/usage of ethanol,
the Central Government apart from scaling up blending targets has also fixed
remunerative ex-depot price of ethanol and waived excise duty on its supplies
to OMCs during 2015-16.

Representations regarding pricing of ethanol for supplies under EBP have been
received from industries representing chemical sector. The matter is presently
sub-judice.

He added that production of ethanol and its supplies under EBP at remunerative
prices are likely to improve the liquidity position of sugar mills enabling
them to clear cane price dues of farmers.

*****

Computerisation in PDS

With a view to modernize the Targeted
Pubic Distribution System (TPDS), the Government has initiated a Plan scheme on
End-to-End Computerization of TPDS operations on cost sharing basis with
States/UTs which would facilitate digitalization of ration cards/beneficiaries
database, computerization of supply chain management, setting up of
transparency portal and grievance redressal mechanism. The scheme will
enable removal of bogus ration cards and better targeting of food subsidy,
facilitate availability of foodgrains to intended beneficiaries at Fair Price
Shops (FPS), check leakages and diversions etc. This information was given by
the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Ram
Vilas Paswan in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

The Minister said that Constant
monitoring through Meetings, Video Conferences, visits, letters, advisories etc
is done regularly with States/UTs to review their progress, problems faced etc.